Sunday, August 29, 2010

Cots, and what fits in a bear box…


I go camping in a couple of weeks. Car camping… so weight isn’t the issue with the highest priority… The Escape can handle 500 lbs of stuff… While the following statement may seem weird to some for whom camping is torture… comfort is a high if not the highest priority…

I have a bunch of camping stuff in the attic… stuff I can grab, load in the vehicle, and go… (in a very few minutes if need be) stuff including a tent, an awning, a box with a stove, pots, pans, dishes… a lantern (maybe two) a cooler… a couple of folding chairs and cots… camping stuff.

Richard asked me if I had an extra cot… This was an unintentionally loaded question…

For Richard (companion on this trip, the wives, our wives, Jenny and Tina, having too much sense and other priorities, like jobs to join us on this adventure… ) comfort is important… 39 years ago (circa 1971) we (Richard and I, and even then Jenny, but not yet Tina) were fine, at least we (Richard and I) told each other we were fine, with “insolite” pads… thin layers of closed cell foam pad… on the cold hard ground… (Richard even spent several weeks in an official Forest Service Disposable sleeping bag while working a fire in Monterey… He now owns nomex underwear pants as a souvenir of the experience…there are stories involving the nomex pants...) have grown up since then, and while that might work in theory on a back pack trip, for this trip we are car camping… and we expect better… we want better, desperately... we want cots...

This trip we will have cots… more and more I always have a cot… this presents its own issue… I have cots, of course I have cots, what kind of camper do you think I am, we have already established that I have cots… I strive to be a happy camper… a happy camper who doesn’t have to sleep on the cold hard ground on ½” of insolite… But, (there is always a “but” in blogging… you might have noticed this) my cots are old, possibly older that either of us… old cots, probably army surplus… wood and canvas… comfortable yes, if in good condition, but these cots are old, older than us (we have established this earlier…)

My cots are old… they are not wearing that age well… a few years ago in Yellowstone I turned over during the night, concentrating my weight (a greater weight than some 39 years ago) and the cot ripped… the very fabric of the cot ripped… failing under my increased weight and its age… and failing brittle weakened fibers… Last year at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon I turned over and the tacks holding the cloth to the wooden frame pulled out… I blame dry wood and age (the cots, not mine.) A couple of days later I visited a hardware store in Cortez Colorado (a really good hardware store… if you need a hardware store and by chance are in Cortez I can suggest a place), to purchase upholstery tacks, which that evening I used to repair said cot… The cot worked (i.e. supported my weight) for the next couple nights, and would likely do so again… but a new cot was on “the list” before the next trip (even with a loss of 25/30 lbs I don’t trust the old cot… and sleeping on the ground is soooo 1971.)

“The list” means that for the last year I have been looking… looking for a consumer opportunity… So far REI hasn’t included cots in there catalog, (sent to my home every 2 weeks or so, at least it seems so) (once REI was REI Co-op, but that was apparently a bit too leftist/socialist/politically incorrect, so now it’s just REI, and gives rebates… (a lot like tax rebates...) I have a day pack and a backpack marked “REI Co-op” but I am probably politically/chronologically incorrect)

Now, a little over a year later Richard and I are going camping… Richard and I need cots, so I am in search of cots… new cots, reliable cots… not the old crappy worn out ones residing in the attic… I am finding cots hard to find… apparently modern campers, (those less than 50 years old) are sleeping on inflatable mattresses, that in my experience deflate at least twice during each night… depositing the sleepers on the previously discussed cold hard ground) So I chose a cot rather than a mattress… I am just weird that way… So Big 5 finally had a sale… I now have two new cots… Coleman Cots… Coleman being a great American brand, of course now made in China… but I digress… constantly… (If you haven’t noticed you are not paying attention, or very probably are functionally illiterate.) Now I have found and procured new, metal framed cots, each with its own carry bag… I win.

The cots will join the equipment pile… the tent, the awing, two cots (yes, THOSE two cots, not the old wood frame cots) a cooler (which one?, there are 5 up in the rafters, aka attic) which collectively will fit in a NPS Standard Bear box…”One bear-resistant food-storage box provided at each campsite: 47" long x 33" deep x 28" high.) along with a dry box (full of pots and pans and dishes and dish soap and aluminum foil…) and a supply box (food, anything that isn’t in the cooler…)

And fire wood… fire wood is important… really important when camping… not for functional reasons… we are not cooking over the fire or trying to keep warm (but we may be) but for the fire… the fire its self… and briquettes… these for cooking, and white gas, for cooking too… We can pick up fire wood along the way at most stores that cater to campers (happy or not) but the local fire wood is likely soft wood… (easy lighting, quick burning wood)… I have access to better hard wood (long burning, good for developing coals… good camp fire wood) so wood must be gathered and packed, along with a bag of good charcoal…

In the mean time Railfair at Ardenwood has arrived, and I am distracted…

1 comment:

  1. Richard, AKA Geezer #2August 31, 2010 at 11:07 PM

    glad to see your also looking forward to the trip! It will be memorable.......well at least until the Alzhiemers kicks in, which for me is scheduled for about 2018.
    you did forget one critical camping essential
    BEER

    ReplyDelete